SF Chronicle to start new business column next week

The San Francisco Chronicle will launch a new business column called “The Bottom Line” next week that will run Monday through Friday.

The writer will be Andrew S. Ross, currently interactive editor at the paper who has also contributed to the paper’s Tech Chronicles blog.

“Our goal is to make The Bottom Line must-reading for anyone doing business in the Bay Area,” said business editor Alan Saracevic in an e-mail. “It will be an items column, driven by news featuring people and companies in the Bay Area’s wildly diverse business community.”

Ross has also been the Chronicle’s executive foreign & national editor since 2001. Prior to joining the Chronicle, Ross was a co-founder of the award-winning web site Salon.com, held a variety of editorial positions at the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner and at public and commercial radio and television stations; and has reported from, among other places, the Middle East, Mexico and Central America, Eastern Europe and Northern Ireland.

In addition to writing and reporting on economic-related issues, his own business experience includes serving as executive vice president for business development at Salon, and heading his own advertising and public relations agency.